A local veterinarian has urged local dog owners not to panic as a potentially deadly pet disease was discovered for the first time on the Island.

Ettrick Animal Hospital veterinarian Dr. Andrew Madeiros last night revealed that heart worm has killed one dog in the Belmont, Warwick area, and left another dog seriously ill.

?In the early stages of having heart worms, dogs don?t usually present any symptoms,? said Dr. Madeiros.

?In the case of these two dogs, a dog died suddenly and it was quite young. When we did an autopsy we found that it had heart worms.?

Heart worms are carried from one dog to another through mosquitoes.

The disease lodges in the dog?s heart. It causes heart-disease like symptoms in the dog, and pieces of the worm can break off and cause a kind of stroke.

?That is probably what happened in this case,? said Dr. Madeiros. ?Probably a piece of the heart worm broke off and caused the dog?s death. The owner?s other dog also had it. We have treated the dog, and he is doing well.?

In the early stages of the disease, there are no symptoms, but in the later stages the dog will tire easily, be lethargic, cough and breathe heavily.

?We don?t want people to panic,? said Dr. Madeiros. ?This may be an isolated pocket of the disease.

?It is prevalent in the United States, but historically Bermuda hasn?t had any dogs infected. It can affect cats, but in a slightly different way. Its preferred host is dogs.?

Ettrick has started testing dogs from the Warwick area.

The good news is that out of the 20 dogs tested so far, none have tested positive for the disease.

?The earlier it is caught, the better the dog will do,? said Dr. Madeiros. ?We don?t think it is widespread but we are doing the testing. There is a kit you can buy to test for it fairly easily. A dog should definitely be tested before someone attempts treatment.?

Dr. Madeiros is suggesting that people in the immediate Belmont, Warwick area arrange for their dogs to have a heart worm test, particularly if they are short-haired dogs, who are outdoors a lot where there are mosquitoes and a large pool of dogs in the neighbourhood.

?In the next few weeks we will find out how prevalent it is, and how aggressively we need to treat it,? he said. ?If people want their dog to be tested, it costs about $60. A lot of the stuff is new to us, and we may have to bring in the tests.?